We make carefully crafted wedding invitations for couples who want to create something sentimental and one-of-a-kind. We think of your invitations as a time capsule of your love – a snapshot that a future generation may discover in a special shoebox one day. We design with you, your guests, and that future someone in mind.
The bespoke process is collaborative and personal. We'll get to know you, your story, and the feeling you want your guests to have when they open their invitations. You can expect to meet several times throughout the process to review mood boards, respond to rough designs, and explore materials and printing techniques. By the end of the design process, we will have created a mini brand for your wedding that threads throughout the event. We can also help you create special favors for your guests, large-scale signage for the event, handbound guestbooks, and day-of paper goods.
We love to incorporate a mix of printing methods into our work for a collected feel, but our in-house letterpress printing is the basis of each suite and can include invitations, RSVP cards, detail cards, maps, and other thoughtful details you can dream up.
The minimum for our bespoke process is $5,000, and our couples typically budget at least $12,000 across save the dates, wedding invitations, and day of paper goods and signage.
We only take on two bespoke projects per quarter so that we can give each project our full attention and inspiration. If you think we’re a good fit for your wedding, reach out sooner than later to check availability.
Compound Press is run by me, Linsey Fields, but in many ways it exists because of my seven siblings. I started designing their wedding invitations as gifts, and things escalated—from Kinko's, to a Cricut, to a full-blown letterpress studio in my basement.
I've been a designer for 15 years, starting my career in New York working at magazines like The New York Times Magazine, New York Magazine, and GQ. In my late twenties, I moved to Mexico City on a whim and stayed for six years, continuing to freelance for magazines and eventually opening a cafe in the mountains of Tepoztlán.
Meanwhile, my siblings were back in Maryland buying neighboring houses so they could do life together. When an adjacent property opened up in 2023, I jumped at the opportunity. We lovingly call it The Compound, hence the name Compound Press. There's not a sibling or in-law who hasn't helped me lug a piece of equipment or spent hours assembling invitations with me.
I've officially run out of unmarried siblings, so here I am, just a girl standing in front of a stranger, asking them to let me design their wedding invitations.
We’re pretty flexible for the right client and this can vary, but the process works best when we have 6-8 weeks for each stage (save the dates, invites, and day of). After our initial consult, I’ll send you a quote and proposal and charge a design retainer to get started. Our first meeting is a fun one - I’ll make some concept moodboards to show you, and we’ll go through a yuck/yum exercise together so I can hone in on your taste. I’ll spend a couple of weeks designing, and once I have something to show you, we’ll meet again to talk it through. There are a few rounds of refinement, and when we all feel good about the designs, we move into pre-production.
A few things happen in pre-production: you owe me final copy, addresses, approvals, etc. I owe you a final production quote based on the specific elements we’ve decided on. Sometimes I prototype an element if it’s a crazy idea or just something we’ve never made before. Once everything is figured out and finalized, your payment on the production quote sets the ball in motion for producing your invites.
We produce everything in my home letterpress studio for better control over the craft and quality of your final pieces, which allows us to pivot (with your approval!) if something isn’t turning out as expected or if we get a late-breaking idea. Once we’re finished, you can pick your invites up and mail them yourselves, or we can assemble and mail for you after sending you lots of pictures to get you excited!
If you’re also doing save the dates or day of details with us, it’s treated as a separate chapter, a rinse/repeat of this same process.
We recommend reaching out 9-12 months before your wedding date, especially for save the dates. We only take on two bespoke projects per quarter, so availability can fill up quickly.
However, we know there’s a strong overlap between the people we love to work with and people who are behind on planning, so don’t write us off if your timeline is a bit tighter. When in doubt, reach out! You can gut check your timeline by emailing us at compoundpress@gmail.com.
Our minimum includes a design fee and production on the elements of your choosing. We like to design first without fully defining the deliverables, just to leave a little room for special things to surface. We’ll discuss budget and printing methods as we go along, and you’ll have full control over what we decide to move into production, as long as you’re hitting that minimum.
The $5,000 minimum applies to invitations only, and couples that also do save the dates and day of details with us typically spend $10-20k.
Letterpress is our favorite method and is usually involved pretty heavily in our suites, but for save the dates and day of goods it tends to be a little more flexible. We’re method agnostic and try to choose the best printing method for each piece and the effect we’re going for. We use a combination of:
Letterpress · Digital printing · Risograph printing · Laser cutting · Die cutting · Thermography · Hot foil
If you want to see more of our processes, follow us on TikTok at Compound Press.
We only offer save the dates and day of paper goods to couples who have already booked their invitations with us.
We’re working on a semi-custom line soon, which will include mix-and-match pieces in a more traditional style, since we’ve printed quite a few of those for family and friends. However, our fully bespoke pieces are one-of-a-kind creations that we’ve done in collaboration with our couples. At the moment, we are not offering any reprints of those items.
Yes, we ship worldwide. Shipping costs vary depending on the size and weight of your order and your location.
If you would like to chat about your vision for your invitations, please use this link to book a complimentary consultation call and get a customized quote afterwards.
For all other inquiries, including semi-custom invitations, please email Linsey at compoundpress@gmail.com and we'll respond to you within 72 hours.